"Since its inception, the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics has been a pioneer in research, advocacy, and service to the medical research community. Los Angeles is proud to host this gathering of researchers, physicians, policy makers, scientists, and industry leaders to advance scientific and technological discoveries of the human brain." said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

"SBMT has been on the forefront of multidisciplinary brain science, technology,and discovery and in the last two decades through a global multidisciplinary partnership and collaboration" said, Dr. Pantaleo Romanelli, President Elect of SBMT, Chief Scientist of AB Medica, Consultant and Scientific Director, Brain Radiosurgery, Cyberknife Center, in Milan, Italy, Visiting Scientist, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), in Grenoble, France

African Brain Mapping and Therapeutics Initiative was launched as part of the G20 Brain Mapping Initiative, which aimed at complementing President Obama's BRAIN Initiative and EU Human Brain Project. In September 2014, Dr. Babak Kateb, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SBMT met with Drs. Glenda Gray, President and CEO of South Africa Medical Research Counsel, John Ouma, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of the Witwatersrand, Marlon Burges, Chairman of Medical Device Association of South Africa and the local prominent scientists and leaders in South Africa discussing the details of the initiative.

"We thank SBMT and Dr. Kateb for visiting us in South Africa and engaging us in this Initiative. We are very excited to be a strategic partner of SBMT and help this initiative by engaging the strategic groups in the entire Africa including the African Academy of Science," said Dr. John Ouma, Member of the Board of SBMT, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and Secretary General of South African Neurosurgical Association.

The topics of this year's World Congress include: brain trauma, mental health, brain policy and research funding, engineering, brain cancer, nanoneurosurgery, metadata and brain mapping, medical imaging, device, material science, radiation oncology, deep brain connectomics and spinal disorders and diagnostics. "This year we particularly emphasized on global partnership with foundations and industry leaders; we have reached out to near 300 foundations and near 1200 industry leaders on our network with the aim of creating a united front on advancing brain discovery. "As the 12th President of SBMT, I made advanced technology and engineering a core for the scientific program and our global initiatives," said Dr. Shouleh Nikzad, 12th President of SBMT, Senior Research Scientist and Lead of the Advanced UV/Vis/NIR Detector Arrays, Imaging Systems, and Nanoscience Group, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, CA, USA.

The 12th annual World Brain Mapping of SBMT is still accepting abstracts, and the organization is planning to expand its membership from 4000 to 6000 in next year and has introduced a multidisciplinary Young Investigator award in partnership with National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) in order to encourage younger scientists to join the organization. For more information about how to become a member or register for the convention, please visit: www.WorldBrainMapping.org